Pivot3 Shares What to Expect at GSX, Discusses 2018 Success

SSI spoke with Brandon Reich, vice president of security and IoT at Pivot3 about what the company will be bringing to GSX 2018, as well as what he sees at opportunities in 2019.

What is the top product or offering you are showing off at GSX 2018, and what makes it unique or special from both security integrator and user perspectives?

We recently announced our large-scale surveillance solution, which is specifically designed to meet the demands of large-scale video surveillance, IoT and Safe City/Smart City deployments in a smaller footprint with superior pricing and total cost of ownership. It is an ultra-dense platform that can deliver more than 6PB of SAN storage in a single rack, combined with industry-leading server performance to support more than 15,000 cameras and 30,000 Mbits/s of video throughput without suffering any performance degradation.

This results in longer retention times, better performance, reduced footprint and overall lower costs. Like all Pivot3 video surveillance solutions, the newest Pivot3 platform incorporates extreme resiliency and high availability to greatly reduce the risk of system downtime and data loss. SAN storage is combined with integrated server virtualization to streamline system management and administration, and consolidate multiple solutions — such as analytics, access control, visitor and evidence management, PSIM, building management and more — onto a single, highly resilient infrastructure.

Our large-scale surveillance solution delivers breakthrough economics. Customers that need the performance, resilience, scale and ease-of-use for large-scale environments can now support more cameras, applications and data on a smaller footprint at superior pricing and total cost of ownership.

What other products or offerings would you like to highlight, and what are some of the qualities that differentiate them in the marketplace?

It’s a fact that big data, security and IT applications generate massive amounts of sensitive data, and capturing, protecting and mobilizing this data is paramount. It is our goal to provide our partners and customers with solutions designed to protect their investment in video and data capture.

Earlier this year, we released an updated version of our critical video surveillance infrastructure software, which delivered up to 120% increase in video throughput to support more cameras per node and reduced rebuild times by up to 65%. Pivot3 is the only video infrastructure solution that can improve system performance through ongoing software updates, protecting investments in existing hardware and enabling systems to scale over time as technology evolves. At GSX, we will also be previewing Acuity, the next generation of Pivot3 software that brings enhanced IT capabilities to our security and IoT solutions.

Strong partnerships are at the very core of our continued success, and we continue to align with major VMS players, key systems integrators and other aligned technology providers, such as Iron Mountain and Lenovo. Pivot3 recently completed its re-certification with Milestone and enhanced integrations with Briefcam, Herta and Kiana.

Brandon Reich

What else is new or noteworthy about the company as the end of 2018 draws near?

Pivot3 experienced more than 70% growth in Q2 2018 over Q2 2017, with continued expansion into the hybrid Cloud with multiple-workload use cases. This isn’t just limited to video anymore; it extends to a wide variety of security applications as well as the broader Internet of Things (IoT) world. As enterprises evolve their infrastructure to support connected devices at the edge, we also are seeing a significant increase in the IoT use cases with continued growth in smart city initiatives around the globe, led by increasingly sophisticated imaging and analytics applications delivering value to customers.

Large enterprise customers created 65% of the company’s revenue in Q2, with a 74% increase in average sales price in Q2 2018 over Q2 2017. The company also closed the largest deal in its history and closed more $1 million deals than ever.

What will drive the future success of our company — and where you will see significantly increased focus — is through helping organizations transform massive amounts of video and security data into actionable intelligence that delivers security, operational and business value. Look for much more from us in this area in the near future.

What is your company’s overall value proposition to installing security dealers/integrators? Why should they partner with your company?

It is a crowded marketplace, and systems integrators need to differentiate themselves with advanced solutions that add real value to end-user organizations. Solutions that are designed for data-intensive environments, such as IP video surveillance and enterprise IT applications, are ideal choices to deliver high levels of performance, resiliency and scalability, enabling customers to protect and ensure availability of critical video surveillance data.

Speaking of IT, this function is a more critical part of the video surveillance and security equation than ever before, and integrators need to be educated on the value of IT solutions to help them meet their data capture needs. Being knowledgeable about IT-driven solutions helps security leaders better understand the somewhat daunting world of IT and data center technology and helps prepare customers and the business for the future. The interest in new technology is growing rapidly, and modern integrators are in a unique position to transform their customers’ surveillance environments while exceeding IT expectations.

Pivot3’s knowledge of the IT market and its ability to provide value in the video surveillance industry make it an ideal partner to help integrators educate themselves on emerging solutions, like hyperconverged infrastructure. As a partner, we can help resellers maximize business opportunity, understand the requirements of working closely with their customers’ IT departments and help ensure they do not lose valuable hardware sales. And we deliver solutions that comply with IT departments’ needs but don’t require advanced IT capabilities to deploy and manage.

Looking ahead at 2019, what do you see as some of the top opportunities in the marketplace? What about challenges?

It is a proven fact that video is the most prominent big data application in the world. With the influx of data being collected at a rapid rate, we have to help organizations capture, analyze and leverage the data that is most important to them. Video analytics is a valuable tool in helping turn data into intelligence, and we expect to see more interest in this kind of advanced solution as the technology continues to evolve and improve. Today’s analytics are not the analytics of yesterday and can now deliver high levels of value that have been promised for so long across the enterprise.

Additionally, there will be new ways to leverage the Cloud that will provide value both to end users and integrators, and this goes beyond the typical video surveillance as a service application.

Of course, with innovation and the adoption of new technologies comes challenges. Hackers are still a threat and are becoming more sophisticated. The proliferation of IoT devices makes the industry more vulnerable. These factors force stakeholders to address system security and vulnerabilities in a more proactive manner, which in the end is beneficial to the entire enterprise and will ensure stronger security postures.

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